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Paper short abstract

It examines a rock art site in India based on fieldwork as part of author's doctoral research. It engages with gender not as a means of identifying identities, but as a framework of how everyday practices and forms of labour are acknowledged or marginalised within archaeological interpretation.

Paper long abstract

This paper examines a rock art site in Central India where the author conducted first-hand fieldwork as part of her doctoral research. It engages with gender not as a means of identifying artist's gendered identities, but as a framework for examining how everyday practices and forms of labour are valued, acknowledged, or marginalised within archaeological interpretation.

Field details and the study show repeated repainting over time, with overlapping motifs and reused surfaces, indicating ongoing minor activity rather than preservation. The patterns imply repetitive, maintenance-related actions rather than sporadic efforts and interventions. The paper reflects on how such everyday practices form a normative mode of interaction with painted surfaces, shaping how rock art was lived with and altered across time.

Instead of attributing these practices to specific genders, this paper examines how archaeology has historically interpreted or ignored them. Feminist archaeologists have demonstrated that archaeological narratives often emphasise monumental and heroic acts while neglecting everyday activities such as maintenance, repair, and repetition. These practices have often been understood as women’s work and consequently devalued, reflecting a gendered interpretive bias rather than an absence of material evidence.

By emphasising maintenance, repetition, and selective neglect as essential aspects of rock art practice, this paper shifts the focus from gender as a feature of past bodies to gender as a means of understanding how norms of everyday practice influence archaeological value. In doing so, it contributes to archaeological anthropology by linking gender to the organisation and interpretation of routine engagement with rock art landscapes.